Asian Shares Give Up Early Gains To End Mostly Lower

(RTTNews) - Asian stocks gave up early gains to end mostly lower on Tuesday as Chinese economic data disappointed and uncertainty lingered over U.S. tax policy.

China's Shanghai Composite index dropped 18.29 points or 0.53 percent to 3,429.55 after a slew of data showed the world's second-largest economy cooled further last month. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was marginally lower at 29,152 in late trade.

China's industrial production and retail sales growth decelerated in October and property investment also cooled, as measures taken to curb excessive debt and factory pollution weighed on activity, data from the National Bureau of Statistic showed.

Industrial output grew 6.2 percent year-on-year in October, down from the 6.6 percent expansion seen in September.

Japanese shares closed on a flat note, with the benchmark Nikkei finishing marginally lower at 22,380.01. The broader Topix index dropped 4.62 points or 0.26 percent to 1,778.87. SoftBank shares fell 1.5 percent after the tech giant said there is a possibility it may not make an investment in ride-hailing service Uber.

Australian shares fell sharply, dragged down by energy stocks after Royal Dutch Shell said it would sell 71.6 million shares in Woodside Petroleum at a 3.5 percent discount to Monday's closing price.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 shed 53.10 points or 0.88 percent to finish at 5,968.70 while the broader All Ordinaries index ended down 48.50 points or 0.80 percent at 6,048.70.

The country's big four banks ended down between 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent while mining heavyweights BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto dropped around 1 percent each.

On the economic front, a weekly survey compiled by the ANZ bank and Roy Morgan Research revealed that Australia's consumer confidence strengthened during the week ended November 12 to the highest level in seven weeks despite ongoing political uncertainty. Another gauge of business confidence also improved slightly in October.

Seoul stocks ended a tad lower after Chinese industrial output and retail sales figures for October missed expectations. The benchmark Kospi slipped 3.71 points or 0.15 percent to end at 2,526.64.